The Near Futurist

Tropical rainforest damage, supply chain delays - so muck damage happens to the environment and we basically stand by and watch it. A company called Another Earth wants to do something more active and is developing synthetic data on our planet to support AI forecasting - co-founder and CEO Maya Pindeus explains to Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton why this is important.

Tropical rainforest damage, supply chain delays - so muck damage happens to the environment and we basically stand by and watch it. A company called Another Earth wants to do something more active and is developing synthetic data on our planet to support AI forecasting - co-founder and CEO Maya Pindeus explains to Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton why this is important.

Continuing the discussion with IOWN Global Forum with its technology director Dr. Masahisa Kawashima on why photonic networks are going to be important in the next few years. In this episode he explores more about the elimination of the need for personal computing and smartphones, how this will be good for the environment and of course the skill sets that will be required to put this into effect. Guy Clapperton is the interviewee as always.

If you're as old as Near Futurist Guy Clapperton you'll remember dial-up networks while everything in the office was connected by cable; now we have wireless networks almost ubiquitously, having seen copper, ISDN and now fibre underpinnings. But wait for it - there's a new standard in the offing. In this episode we offer the first part of a chat with Dr. Masahisa Kawashima, technology durector of IOWN Global Forum - a cross-industry group of 170 organisations working on photonic networking. Listen to find out why this is going to be important.

The concluding part of Guy Clapperton's interview with Emilee Tellez, field CTO of Veeam. How organised are hackers these days, how "professional" have they become - and how can someone follow Emilee herself in starting off in sales and ending up on the board as a technologist?

The Near Futurist remains on a security theme as Guy Clapperton explores best practice with EmileeTellez, field CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Veeam in the first part of this interview. Why do board members so often think their tech is safe while the actual IT staff are panicking - and why, even now, are so few of the tech staff women?

The second part of Guy Clapperton's interview with Glen Williams, CEO of security specialist Cyberfort. This time we explore certifications and what you need to be aware of when engaging a security specialist; also why a certificate is a snapshot rather than a guarantee.

Tech security has gone way beyond basic antivirus protection - in this next interview spanning two weeks, Guy Clapperton talks to Glen Williams, CEO of Cyberfort, about how the threat is evolving and what really hasn't changed.

Guy Clapperton concludes his conversation with Lawrence Rosenberg of Rosenberg.media about the future of public relations and  communications - where AI is going to fit and more importantly why the human factor is going to be more important than ever. Also covered: ageism and false positives.

The fifth series of the Near Futurist kicks off with an interview with Lawrence Rosenberg. Fresh from his run on this years's "The Apprentice" he is setting up his own PR company, Rosenberg.media, and he has ideas on where the industry should be going.

Continuing Near Futurist Guy Clapperton's discussion with Manoj Chawla, inventor of the Studiobox - in part 2 we look at the practicality and ease of use of the device which aims to repair eye contact and improve communications and human contact over video channels.   To watch us discuss this on video have a look here:   https://youtu.be/Zbu0aUNeDwk   Above is a pic of the Studiobox itself:  

We're so used to video calls now that we hardly notice how naff they are. No eye contact, people looking around the room - whatever happened to human contact? A phone call is often better. Technology industry veteran Manoj Chawla has been looking into what's gone wrong and has a potential solution in his device called the Studiobox. Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton has been playing with it. so they have a chat. And of course what would be the point if they didn't put it on video? You can watch rather than listen to this episode here: https://youtu.be/v-yABH82zAE

Continuing the conversation between Near Futurist Guy Clapperton and TomTom's global business manager for traffic, Douglas Gilmour. We finish the conversation by discussing increasingly smart and collaborative map projects and how they're going to affect our daily lives.

We all take satellite navigation for granted but maybe we shouldn't - it's finding its way into smart cities, fleet management, delivery and huge amounts of other areas. In this interview Near Futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to Douglas Gilmour, global develpment manager for traffic at TomTom to about how increasingly smart maps are making a huge difference to us. https://tomtom.com

In part two of this interview, Ten10 co-founder Ash Gawthorp continues his conversation with Guy Clapperton about the impact of sudden innovation in artificial intelligence on people and learning. They cover company culture and the ability to fail, learning patterns, how to avoid burnout - and the impact of sudden technological change on smaller organisations. Find out more about Ten10 at https://ten10.com  

Artificial Intelligence has been hitting the news even more than usual as Chinese company Deep Seek has turned the market upside down, hitting numerous businesses dependent on the complexity of building AI where it hurts - in the share price. But what about the people using and developing skills in AI? In this episode, Near Futurist podcaster and speaker Guy Clapperton speaks to Ash Gawthorp, chief academy officer and co-founder of consultancy and education company Ten10, about what sort of learning culture needs to be in place for businesses to be ready for this and future sudden sea-changes.

In this second part of the interview with Dimitra Simeonidou of Joiner, the academic project to explore what's coming next in 6G and beyond, Guy Clapperton asks about when to upgrade our devices, what the role of academia is in all this - and gets advised not to try to trademark the term "7G". Which is a shame.  More on the work of Prof. Simeonidou here.

You thought the conspiracy theories over 5G were bad but had stopped - well, we can only hope it won't all happen again because, wait for it, plans for 6G are afoot. Surely, asks Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton. we don't need it, isn't 5G fast enough? That's until our guest, Prof. Dimitra Simeonidou, head of the UK 6G Testbed, called Joiner (website https://www.bristol.ac.uk/research/groups/smart/projects/joiner/), reminds him that 5G signals tend to fail immediately you get on a two hour train journey or something. She also explores how the metaverse might actually happen but with a more "real" experience than you'd get from modern networks as well as the role of satellite technology. Tune in here for part 1 of this absorbing interview - part 2 will be here next week.

In the second part of this interview with Smartrectuiters CEO Rebecca Carr, near futurist Guy Clapperton explores the advantages of using artificial intelligence for recruitment. AI isn't the whole answer - but it's going to offer a lot of shortcuts!

Should we be worried about AI in terms of job seeking? Rebecca Carr is a specialist who sees pros and cons. She speaks to Near Futurist Guy Clapperton in. part 1 of this interview.

We keep hearing that we're too stressed because we're always on and we spend too much time in front of screens. No argument there but technology can also help. Dr. Emilia Molimpakis of Thymia explains to Guy Clapperton that monitoring of employees in an anonymised, non-intrusive manner can expose all sorts of behaviours that indicate someone is heading for a crash. But to what extent should employers be monitoring people in this way in the first place - and what should they do with the information? Listen to this episode to find out!

So many myths about selling electricity between neighbours and yet it never seems to happen - meanwhile the cost of living is set to continue skyrocketing this year. Near Futurist podcaster Guy Clapperton speaks to Jo-Jo Hubbard, CEO of Electron, about how the infrastructure and business models are coming around to enable people to trade electricity with each other at last.

Noise cancelling headphones work by adding noise. What's more, if you measure the annoyance of someone when a contact centre agent asks them to repeat their contact information more than once, it gets disproportionately high. This matters when it can all be a matter of fixing the audio engagement. In this edition of the Near Futurist, IRIS Technology CEO Jacobi Anstruther explains the issues to Guy Clapperton - and looks into why the music industry still hasn't quite taken it in. Find out more about IRIS at iris.audio

Shopping is changing - we're abandoning cash almost without realising it and you can walk out of an Amazon Go store feeling as if you haven't paid at all. In this edition of the Near Futurist Guy Clapperton speaks to Charlie Hope, retail principal at IT services company BJSS, about what his retail clients are asking - and therefore what we can espect next! Also Guy looks at the Logi Dock to tidy his desktop environment.   Find out more about BJSS at BJSS.com and the Logi Dock here.   And if you wanted to find out more about Guy's media training service you can find the website here.

What's that? There's another social network out there? There certainly is and we don't mean Threads. Guy talks to Sue Fennessy, founder and chief executive of WeAre8, which aims to restore value to the participant (or "citizen" as it calls them), enable them to donate to charities and stop using hateful messages. Also Guy's thoughts on the Amazon Kindle Scribe - the e-reader that also works as a note taking gadget.

We are all making too much rubbish and it's going to landfill. This is generally agreed to be a bad ikdea - so of course we still do it. Chris Williams of ISB Global thinks this is an extremely bad idea and he's prepared to talk about why. His company offers a software solution to managing the disposal of what would otherwise become landfill but he also has some ideas about the sort of things we could all be doing to reduce waste - as well as explanations as to why waste is a bad idea in the first place. He speaks to Guy Clapperton, near futurist podcaster - and Guy also has a look at some of the note taking devices he uses in the new gadget slot.

Your car isn't just your vehicle any more, says Yasmine King of ADI - it's your workplace in some cases and not in others. You also need a quieter environment for your mental health and the fact that electronic vehicles are silent makes this more difficult, not easier, because of the background noise. MeanwhileOlivier Bessi of Star Global has been grappling with in-car payments. Both speak to me, Guy Clapperton, in this latest episode of the Near Futurist podcast.

We've all heard of the metaverse by now - but is it a "thing" or a marketing construct? There are no holds barred in this Dividing Lines debate, the series in the Near Futurist sponsored (but never dictated) by Diffusion PR. Futurist.com supremo Nikolas Badminton takes on Based.AF head honcho Robin Schmidt as they consider whether it's more than immersive VR, whether Damien Hirst should have burned his pictures and whether host Guy Clapperton can afford to not buy the NFT of the original lyrics to "Hey Jude". If you enjoy the show please do leave a review on the iTunes store or wherever you came across it!

Received wisdom suggests that we're all going to work flexibly and it's going to be great. Winter is coming, however - so will we scurry back to the office to stay warm or do the figures still add up? And what if we suggest that home working is actually less productive than office working anyway? It's a polarising debate but in this episode of Dividing Lines, a series-within-a-series from the Near Futurist supported by Diffusion PR, the positions are nuanced. The University of Essex' Christoph Siemroth and BT's Nicola Millard debate, chaired by me, Guy Clapperton. The paper referred to by Christoph is here: https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/finding/work-from-home-productivity-evidence-from-personnel-analytics-data-on-it-professionals/

Dr. Carol Nakhle of the University of Surrey and Robin Peters of Snugg Energy discuss the energy crisis with near futurist Guy Clapperton: * Is the increase in pricing a useful tool to dampen demand? * How long will payback take if people invest in their homes? * Are the high prices prompting the right action? * What practical steps can we take early on? * What's the view on energy from non-Western countries? In association with Diffusion PR

A preview of Friday's Near Futurist interview: * Dr. Carol Nakhle of Surrey University and Robin Peters of Snugg debate * Is the dice loaded against us reaching Net Zero? Should fuel prices be part of the plan? * What are the obstacles, like payback times?

Education was doomed and schools would universally suffer as a result of the pandemic, we were told. It's certainly changed stuff. but has the disaster rteally happened and what part has technology played? Alexa Joyce of Microsoft discusses with Guy Clapperton. If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

We all have a lot of information about our bodies - we might own smartwatches or phones that count our paces or measure our pulse rate, we may have a blood pressure monitoring machine and there are apps and devices to help with diabetes.  Is it all too much, though? Has self-diagnosis gone too far? In this debate I speak to Dr. Gigi Taguri of LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor and Hamish Grierson of Thriva about whether we have too much data and when we need to get advice from a human. If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

Lab-grown meat or factory-made fillets - is the future of meat away from the farm? Daan Luining of Meatable thinks the balance ay change while while Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance in the UK thinks otherwise. Guy Clapperton presents the latest in the Dividing Lines mini-series within the Near Futurist podcast, sponsored by Diffusion PR. If you enjoy the Near Futurist why not leave a review on the iTunes Store - or join the LinkedIn group? Just search for Near Futurist Podcast, see you there!

It's been an exciting 12 months for astronomy enthusiasts - Jeff Bezos actually took Captain Kirk to outer space! But in the past we've jettisoned a lot of parts of our spacecraft, so how much junk is there out there? And is it a problem? Prof. Moriba Jah of the University of Texas and Privateer is tracking the issue and discusses how it's become difficult and why it matters. See his image of all the space junk at astria.tacc.utexas.edu/AstriaGraph/ If you like what you hear, why not leave a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you picked this podcast up? Also you'd be welcome to join its new LinkedIn group: (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn

We've all heard about the Great Resignation and in this episode of the Near Futurist, Vodafone's chief HR officer Leanne Wood tells Guy Clapperton there is culture as well as technology in play. If you like what you hear, why not leave us a review on the iTunes Store or wherever you found us?

We've all heard about the Great Resignation and in this episode of the Near Futurist, Vodafone's chief HR officer Leanne Wood tells Guy Clapperton there is culture as well as technology in play. If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

Graphene used to be a theoretical thing but nobody was sure they could extract it - now it has the potential to change the way we make and keep clothes, engineer flights and even build houses. Neil Ricketts, chief executive officer of graphene specialist Versarien, talks to Guy Clapperton. If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

A lot of people advocate getting back to nature as the way to preserve the Earth but they may be wrong. Geo-engineering, in which we intervene artificially, may be more sustainable. Near Futurist Guy Clapperton asks visiting associate professor at Columbia Business School, climate economist, academic, and author Gernot Wagner and assistant professor of environment and sustainability at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York, Holly Jean Buck, for their perspectives. This is part of the Dividing Lines mini-series of Near Futurist podcasts sponsored by Diffusion PR.   If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

As the Cop26 conference convenes in Glasgow we are aware we'll have to make changes and flying remains a major carbon polluter. This may be about to change, however, and in this Dividing Lines debate, sponsored by Diffusion PR, Guy Clapperton speaks to Tom Grundy of Hybrid Air Vehicles and Cristina Garcia-Duffy of the Aerospace Technology Institute about alternative technologies for freight, military and carrying people from A to B. If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

Suppose a pair of trainers could not only assure you they were genuine but enable you to sell them back to the manufacturer for remaking so someone else could have them? The process starts with smarter labelling - Guy Clapperton speaks to Max Winograd, VP of connected products for Avery Dennison. If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

Vertical farming - put your crops into a high rise building, maybe based on hydroponics so they take up less space and you control the climate. Is this the way forward to eliminate poverty? Neither of our guests think it's that simple. In this podcast Angry Chef blogger Anthony Warner debates Agritecture CEO Henry Gordon-Smith about what's going to work and what's not. Guy Clapperton chairs in this debate in the Dividing Lines series, sponsored by Diffusion PR. If you enjoy this show, why not put a review wherever you found it?  

The Coca-Cola song from the 1970s, the Bond theme, Windows start-up, Apple switch-on - we're surrounded by aural branding as well as logos and visual cues. Michele Arnese, CEO of amp, talks us through what's going on. The show starts off with an explanation of an error I made during the interview - with apologies! If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

New to the Near Futurist - a mini-series of debates sponsored by Diffusion PR. In this episode Vinay Nair of Lightful returns to speak to Guillaume Bouchard of CheckStep - are we better off fighting misinformation through algorithms and AI or should we take the grass roots approach and look to people?   If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

Guy Clapperton interviews Helena Schwenk of Exasol on how the "D-native" generation doesn't necessarily think it's as fluent as all that in data - and the impact this will have on society and business. If you like what you're hearing why not leave a review wherever you found this edition - and if you wanted to read it rather than listen, check the transcript at https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/nearfuturist/Young_people_and_data_Near_Futurist_transcript.pdf If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

Lockdown has prompted unhealthy behaviours in a lot of us and we're putting on weight. One unlooked-for effect of all this is diabetes, and Cyndi Williams of Quin has an app to help. She tells Guy Clapperton about this and how misunderstood diabetes is in this 21 minute podcast. Hearing issues? Here's a transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/nearfuturist/Cyndi_Williams_of_Quin_on_the_Near_Futurist_podcast.pdf If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

We all use elevators but did you know that the maintenance charge can be invoked even when they haven't moved? Augustin Celier of Uptime believes it's time for a new model. If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

Dr. Merritt Moore is a bit of a renaissance woman in that she is a professional ballet dancer with a doctorate in physics and a qualified astronaut. She has a lot to say about the divide between arts and scientists in this episode in which she speaks to Guy Clapperton If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC

Live sport is on the way back and it's going to be soon but we all want stadiums to be safe. Mike Elliot, CEO of Over-C, explains how the answer may lie in the Internet of Things. Find out more about presenter Guy Clapperton at clappertonmediaassociates.com - oh go on, he spent $3 on that football crowd sound effect just for you...   If you enjoy this or would like to feed back/suggest future guests why not join the LinkedIn group?  (99+) The Near Futurist podcast | Groups | LinkedIn Also the podcast has its own website at nearfuturist.co.uk - and if you liked it, it would be really helpful to leave a review on whichever platform you found it - thank you! - GC